To construct a building, it is known in the art to build a wall as a frame having a horizontal sill plate on the bottom and a horizontal top plate on the top, connected by a series of vertical studs. These components had for decades been made of wood. More recently, light weight steel has been adopted for this.
Such wall panels may be cost-effectively pre-assembled in a manufacturing facility and shipped to a building site for a comparatively rapid final assembly. Pre-fabricated wall frames, however, must be moved, and moving may torque the wall frame and distort its shape. Thus, pre-fabricated wall frames should be stabilized against torsional and other stress to maintain the wall panel shape. This is typically done by welding to the wall panel at least one tensioned steel strap running diagonally across a face of the wall frame. This is shown in FIG. 1, which shows the bottom portion of a wall panel having a base plate [2], a plurality of vertical steel studs [6] and/or shearwall posts [1] placed in a baseplate notch [3]. A diagonal strap(s) [4] is tack-welded [5] to the base of the shearwall post [1]. The diagonal strap is installed under tension using a standard steel strap tensioning tool and welded in place.
This prior art construct stabilizes the pre-fabricated wall panel during transit and installation. After installation, however, when load is placed on the wall panel, the load may be greater than the tension on the strap, causing the strap to lack tension; when this happens, the steel strap may buckle outward from the wall panel, damaging the gypsum or other wall panel covering.
To remedy such strap buckling, the skilled artisan currently cuts the welded strap from the installed wall panel, re-sets the strap and re-welds it to the wall panel in situ at the building construction site. This process, however, is time-consuming, and thus is both expensive and frustrates one of the advantages of pre-fabricated construction: the ability to construct a building quickly. There is thus a need in the art for a way to stabilize pre-fabricated wall panels for shipping, while avoiding the need to remove and re-weld stabilizing straps. We have found a way.